As we approach the end of April 2021, we are waiting for the “other shoe” to drop. In fact, we are waiting for two shoes to drop.
The larger shoe comes in the form of SORNA regulations proposed by the federal government nine months ago. The regulations, if finalized, would result in great uncertainty for more than 950,000 registrants and their families.
That is because the regulations would require registrants to meet new federal requirements, such as the disclosure of all internet identifiers and foreign passports. The regulations would also require registrants to attempt to register with local law enforcement up to four times a year in states that are likely to refuse to do so.
The federal government issued its proposed regulations in August 2020 and has remained silent about its regulations since that time. They have not acknowledged the fact that they received more than 700 public comments, including a 36-page comment from ACSOL, regarding the proposed regulations. And they have not indicated whether they will modify the proposed regulations based upon the comments they received. Nor have they indicated whether they will finalize the originally published regulations and if so, at what time.
During a few discussions with federal government officials, it has been implied that the proposed federal regulations are likely to be finalized. Those implications, however, do not constitute an official opinion and therefore we continue to wait for a final decision. In the meantime, the group of legal professionals who created ACSOL’s 36-page comment are preparing for the worse – finalization of the original version of the proposed regulations.
The smaller shoe comes in the form of the Tiered Registry Law in California. Although this law was passed more than three years ago, the state government has not yet issued the form that will be necessary to file in order for an individual to petition for removal from the registry. With only 60 days left before petitions can begin to be filed, registrants and attorneys remain in the dark regarding what information will be required in order to prepare and file a petition.
What is taking the state government so long? Could it be that the state government doesn’t care that many individuals in California who have registered for 40 years or longer will be eligible to petition for removal in two months?
It is imperative that the Tiered Registry petition forms be released immediately so that ACSOL, registrants and private attorneys can begin to prepare and file petitions on behalf of registrants. The state government has had more than three years to create the petition form and there is no excuse for further delay.
If you would like to be notified when either or both of these shoes drop, please provide ACSOL with your email address in the special Tiered Registry and SORNA signup form (it will soon be available below the Email Alerts signup form). ACSOL will report those events as soon as that information is available.
Related links:
Federal Government Publishes Proposed Changes to SORNA
Sounds like a nightmare.
Thank you Janice! We spoke about 11 months ago. You provided me with a suggestion and I ran with it. Had we not spoken, I wouldn’t have acted on your suggestion. I was awarded a COR in April and just yesterday, I received a letter via the DOJ Management Board informing me that I’m no longer required to register. Furthermore, I’m now in the process of re obtaining a professional license via AB 2138. Thank you – LA County Courts – Janice
Two steps forward…..couple steps back! ODAAT(one day at a time). We don’t know what we don’t know YET! Thank you for this “heads up!”.
So, here’s an interesting question: Does this mean we would have to report the identifiers we use on this very platform along with this ACSOL web address??
Talk about chilled speech…
What a colossal waste of time. A person could easily list internet identifiers and then change them. And registering 4 times a year. What is that supposed to accomplish? I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but still.
Janice, is there a legal strategy for an upcoming challenge to this? Talk about an unfunded mandate that will cost the states hundreds of millions. I know you do not think a full on attack is a viable strategy, but this may force someone’s hand. When it affects so many people, it might be time to revisit Smith v Doe.
All registrants and persons concerned with this issue must be supportive of ACSOL’s work.
Thank you Janice and the small army of advocates standing behind you.
I hate to state the obvious, but at what point do these “civil” obligations become violative of ex post facto punishment(s) that violate the U.S. Constitution??
I will simply refuse to comply. And when they come to my door, I would have a nice greeting for them. This has to stop somewhere, either for me or them.
Sounds like the feds are pushing to the point we have no choice but to resist. Many of us have been functioning well for many years, but for them to increase restrictions such as increased number of times to register each year–which can require more days off from work and more hours wasted sitting in the police station, risk of forgetting to register, increased humiliation–and for viable no reason whatsoever is just getting unacceptable. If I have been doing fine, why is my punishment going to be increased? Registration is already an enhancement to my sentence, and now that enhancement is being increased without representation or a trial and without evidence.
According to the DOJ the re—offense rate is low, so why do they need these restrictions. Sounds like human beings can be traded on the stock market; which many elected officials and bureaucrats probably have money invested. These laws need to fall off a cliff and burn in the pit of Hell. Enough is enough; government didn’t create me and they can’t control me while claiming I have freedom. I want freedom from the government and not being labeled a pervert as well as a burden to society. True burden is the government and their useless laws. Let my people live in PEACE!!
So I’m a field tech for my company. I travel town to town but occasionally, not a lot cross a state line to assist with an area. I’ve read different reports,. Some news sites say this will mandate me to have to register in that state I worked in that day. Even though I come back home to my home state that night. Is this true? Cuz if it is I am most certainly going to lose my job. Not from me getting fired, but for me not wanting to register it one particular state that will keep me as a lifetime sex offender. In my state I can get off in 8 years. Also the tentative route requirement.. that changes on a daily basis for me. There is no way I can predict that. And that is in my opinion the same as Italian a monitor around my anklet tracking my movements…
Also, while ASCOL has done great work in California, lobbying and creating change. If, knowing that this new proposed rule, could undo all of that; has ASCOL lobbied at all any of their federal representatives for amendments to federal SORNA? Obviously, 33 states believe they have a better idea on how to manage sexual offenders over the last 15-years. In contrast, it only took a few years for all the states to comply with the Wetterling Act. It appears that federal SORNA is an unworkable law (their last ditch effort is to make us individually comply regardless of state law, at the expense of the state’s coffers).
I received a letter from both the DOJ almost 3 weeks thereafter. It’s signed from the head of the sex offender management board. I’m clearly going to make a few copies. It also states that copies are being sent to LE (where I register). My next step it to contact Homeland Security and get what’s called a redress (update their info) so I won’t be harassed or prohibited from traveling. The law firm ($1400) was amazing and I never even stepped into court. Best of luck to everyone and again (she knows), if Janice hadn’t answered to phone the day I called and provided a story/idea, none of this success would have occurred. Thank you
DOJ needs a new paint brush and stop brushing all registrants with the broad brush along with bs frightening and high paint. Does anyone working at the DOJ have a brain or are they all mindless robots?
The new SORNA perposul is just that a PERPOSUL if states choose to accept the federal government’s perposul then so be it they can fit the bill.
Since the pandemic police department’s have been avoiding physical contact with sex offenders as much as possible and now they want them to start collecting more information from people sounds like a shiiit tun of work for law enforcement who’ve already expressed the registry is time consuming and useless as is
so honestly I don’t see California accepting the federal government’s perposul any time soon.
SB384 arrives in 60 days wow congratulations to everyone who made it to see the new California Teir Law i know you guys are feeling abit anxious and nervous about the possiblity of going free and I hope & pray everything works out for you guys placed in teir1&2.
Unfortunately for me my birthday is after July 1st so I will not be eligible to petition for removal till next year no big deal I kinda wanna see how this whole thing plays out anyway we all know the DOJ are gonna drag their feet but i think with pressure from the California Public Defenders Office and ACSOL they’ll get the ball rolling around September 2021.
People need to relax and stop being afraid of SORNA what more can the federal government do to us they haven’t already done it’s time to start backing Janice Bellucci and ACSOL play their sticking their necks on the line for California residents so out of respect we should do the same so next time ACSOL is lobbying at the state Capitol hope 1000s of California residents show up and support the work theses people do for us
Good luck 😬👌
The other shoe dropped yrs ago. It was named ‘SORNA’. Once that entity began, most hope was lost. They can do anything, implement any law, and operate with impunity.
We got housing restrictions lifted, so they in turn keep us from moving around.
We got limits on registration duration at state level implemented, so they simply change the rules to make their registration indefinite.
We are playing on a tilted field and we are running uphill against the wind.
Personally I feel violence is our only recourse left. Passive resistance did nothing for MLK, Gandhi, or the Jews. A violent society only understands violence.
I say refuse to comply, and then call the local news when they come to your door with a warrant for arrest. Let the public see how the police treat a 7 yr old misdemeanor because he didn’t come in after 3 months to update his info.
If the states that have constitutions that forbid retro active application of laws carry out the dirty deeds of the Federal Government, they should be able to be sued for that. Can the Federal Government force a state to violate its own constitution? Printz vs. United States 1997 precludes the Federal Government’s “forced participation of the State’s executive in the actual administration of a federal program”, but in the aftermath the states eventually went along with the gun background checks, but they weren’t going against their state’s constitution by going along with it.
Is this the major issue?
Here’s another issue that should be challenged if it already hasn’t been:
Spending Clause, Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution
(4) not cross the line from enticement to impermissible coercion, such that states have no real choice but to accept the funding and enact or administer a federal regulatory program. The fourth of these criteria, in particular, is intended to ensure that any conditions on federal grant funds do not run afoul of the Tenth Amendment’s prohibition on the federal government’s “commandeering” of state or local governments or officials by requiring them to carry out federal programs.
This is absolutely horrific. I can’t believe anybody in their right mind can read the federal Sorna regulations and not realize how absurd this is. So, what does that mean for the following: CA has a Tiered Registry and Tier one has to register for 10 years, yet SORNA says 15 years. CA asks you to register within 5 days of your Birthday, SORNA says 3 days. And, you really have to notify them if you want to take a 2 week vacation? You have to tell them your Internet identifiers every time you add or change it? How in the world can anybody, including the Feds keep up with this BS? People who have been offense free so long are obviously no longer a threat, but we already know that. These people must be on some good meds to believe their own BS. How again could this ever have been ruled administrative and not punishment. I would like to see them having to follow 2000 rules every day, and if they miss just one, they go to prison for 10 years. Nothing administrative will ever land you in prison, nothing!!!!!
“Our” government bureaucrats, politicians, schools, and media lied to us when they said America is the “land of the free.” Almost one million “registered sex offenders” in America, forced to comply with ex facto laws, with a meaningless Constitution that ostensibly “protects” everyone.
Meanwhile, we have what are probably fudged employment and GDP figures, the devaluation of the U.S. Dollar, increased inflation, prices of homes are at all time highs, record homelessness, record student loan debt, massive wealth inequality… the list could go on.
America is corrupt as hell and a BIG joke. Prove me wrong.
I will wait and see if this goes into affect. But if it does, I will become a fugitive. I have given enough and taken enough. There has to be a line that says it has gone too damn far. They want a criminal, they will get one.
Thanks @ACSOL Moderator for adding the link to the initial ACSOL posting from last summer (above) when this was initially proposed by the Feds. It could aid in the discussion here for those who want to reference it.
Here is the actual Fed Register posting: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/13/2020-15804/registration-requirements-under-the-sex-offender-registration-and-notification-act
Here is the link to the doc ACSOL submitted in reply: https://all4consolaws.org/2020/10/acsol-and-allies-submit-formal-response-to-proposed-sorna-regulations/
The comments can be seen here https://beta.regulations.gov/document/DOJ-OAG-2020-0003-0001/comment (Thx to @Hopeful in Michigan for that)
When I was 18 I was told by two plain clothes 290 registration detective at the Moreno Valley PD that they didn’t care what the judge says I deserved to be taken out back and a bullet put in my head the other detective replied no that be a waste ove bullet.
I smiled and said my case isn’t even that serious have you guys read it one of the detective replied I dont care what you did or where you go your gonna have to register az a sex offender till the day you DIE for some reason that all ways stuck with me.
Now fast forward 21 years later your telling me SORNA has purpose that tier 1&2 sex offenders only have to register for 15 or 25 years and all they have to do is register 3 times a year and give them some old email addresses and usernames and tell them when they go on vacations after all iv been through that ain’t shiit they can have that information.
For me personally it don’t matter what SORNA or California DOJ do ether way I’m still labeled tier1 and I’ve already been registering for 21 years now so there ain’t nothing they do to me that they haven’t already done
Good luck 😬👌